Their Final Encounter
by lgkavanagh22
Summary: George ventures into the Forbidden Forrest after the Battle of Hogwarts and finds a Stone that gives him the chance to see his twin one last time.


**_A/N: My first HP fanfic, therefore my first time attempting to capture these characters. Decided to go for a more solemn situation for my first attempt. Hope you like it. x_**

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I had to get away. I couldn't stand to be around that castle any longer.

How could I? All the destruction, all the people crying, all the dead bodies that were laying in a line.

A line that contained Fred's corpse.

Fred, my twin brother, my best mate, the man I had gone through my entire life with.

He's dead now.

He and I will never laugh together again. We won't pull pranks or invent spells or make fun of Percy or Ron ever again. We won't be there to support each other, to comfort each other or encourage each other. He's gone.

So I had to get out. Leave the castle and just be alone.

Alone. That was a concept I had to get used to.

People tried to stop me or hold me back as I left, telling me it wasn't safe. Of course it was safe. You-Know-Who had been killed. And if it wasn't safe, I'd get to join my brother.

I shrugged everyone off, and Ron finally saved me with a "Just let him go."

I was emotionless as my legs carried me numbly into the Dark Forrest. I was fighting back tears, but I don't know why. I was alone, I could cry all I wanted. Even in the presence of other people, who was going to fault a guy for crying over the death of his twin?

Maybe I felt like crying would make things real. Maybe that would force me to accept the reality that I was trying to push away.

I'm not sure how long I walked before I broke down. Maybe one minute, maybe five, maybe ten, but eventually I sunk to my knees and sobbed.

My body convulsed with pent-up sadness. Huge tears streamed down my dirty face, stinging my eyes because they were welling up so fast. My nose was running and my mouth became dry, but I couldn't stop.

So I cried. I sat and cried for what felt like hours. Cried because I had lost Fred, cried because I didn't get to say goodbye, cried because I wasn't there to save him, cried because it hadn't been me, cried for my family who would also have to deal with losing a brother and a son, cried because I was being selfish by not being there to comfort them and mourn with them.

Eventually I cried to the point where it pulled up everything in my stomach with it. I leaned forward as my stomach emptied its contents, putting my hands down so I was on all fours.

But I put my right hand right into a stone. I winced a bit, but it was more annoying than anything. As I sat back up, I picked up the stone.

It didn't look like a normal stone. It looked special. I gripped it in my hand, holding onto it desperately as if dropping it would kill me. After a while I started to turn it over in my hands, tears still running down my cheeks.

As I turned it, I felt it heat up slightly. Not to the point of burning me, but enough that I knew that it wasn't natural. Something was happening. I wasn't sure what until I heard a voice behind me.

"Who's the Saintlike one now, Gerogie?"

I whipped around, looking for the source of the voice. It hadn't been him, it couldn't have been him.

But it was.

Standing off in the distance was Fred. My brother. My twin. My best friend.

He had a blue aura about him, but he was smiling that mischievous smile that everyone said we shared.

"Fred!" I screamed. I jumped up and sprinted full speed towards him, arms out and ready to throw around him.

But I ran right through him.

I whipped back around to see him laughing. "Smooth move, where'd you come up with that one?"

I froze, stunned. What was going on?

"Haven't you figured it out yet? Man, your wits are slowing down," he said, pointing to the stone I was now barely clutching in my hand. "Don't you recall the wonderful stories our mother used to tell us, way back in the day, about such things as…the Deathly Hallows?"

I could only stare at him, bewildered. Leave it to my brother to have just died, come back to life, and the first thing he talks about is… old legends?

But…

No, it was just a legend. It couldn't possibly be-

"The Resurrection Stone?" I asked quietly.

Fred nodded. "The one and only. Have to say, I'm glad you found it, George. I was afraid I was gonna have to go without a goodbye."

"Goodbye? But… but this doesn't have to be goodbye! Fred, if this really is the Resurrection Stone, if this really is you, then you can stay! And we can make jokes and invent new products- man, we could really freak some people out with a dead person walking around the shop- and we can..."

Fred chuckled. "Ah, I knew you'd think that. See, if I was in your position, I'd have calmly remembered the story and known that you can't bring someone back permanently. It'd keep both of us from happiness and you'd end up hanging yourself or blowing yourself up with a Diabolic Dare Devil to come join me. Which you shouldn't do," he said suspiciously, raising his eyebrows, "because if you die, and I'm already dead, then the world has lost its two greatest people."

I knew he was trying to be funny and cheer me up, but, for the first time, it wasn't working.

"B-But what about Mom? Don't you want to see her again? And Dad? And Ginny, and Ron, and Charlie, and Bill, and Percy, and- and Angelina, and Lee, and Harry, and Hermione, and-"

"George," he interrupted. "I'm gonna break something to you, and it may be hard for you to hear, and not just because you only have one ear." He smiled, and I smiled a little at that one, too. "But I'm dead. I'm not entirely sure how I died, but I did. And the moment I died, we started living in two completely different worlds. Which is weird, considering we've never even lived in different rooms. But in any case, this is how it is now."

"It doesn't have to be-"

"Yes, it does. George, please. It's better this way. The world is only big enough for one Weasley twin, and I gotta admit, I'm glad it's you."

"That makes one of us," I said sadly. "How am I gonna live without you, Fred? It should have been me, we should have died together, or I could have saved you…"

Fred chuckled again. "Be honest with me here, mate. If this was the other way around, would you be content with me saying I'd rather have died than you?" He didn't wait for a response. "No, you wouldn't. You'd want me to get on with life… though I'll admit I'm not sure I'd be able to… But I know you, and I know that you're going to be okay."

"How can you think I'll be okay?" I asked him, tears beginning to well up in my eyes again. "Fred, when you were killed, some people lost a friend. Lee lost a best friend. Angelina lost the man she loved. Ginny, Ron, Percy, Charlie, and Bill lost a brother. Mom and Dad lost a son. But I-" my voice cracked and I got choked up. "I lost my other half."

Fred was still smiling, but I could see sadness cloud his eyes. "George, you don't need me in order to be whole. You have skills and traits that I could never have dreamed of having. I needed you more than you could ever have needed me. Remember when I wanted to blackmail Baggins? And you said that'd be wrong? You were always there to point me in the right direction. Now you can steer yourself in the right direction. You'll need time to heal, I understand that, but you _will_ heal. Trust me, George."

I didn't have a response to that. I knew I wouldn't heal, but arguing seemed pointless at that time. And I didn't want to argue with him, especially if this was the last time I would ever see him.

"Well," I said finally, trying to smile, "how long can you stick around?"

He smiled back, though feebly. "However long you need."

_There's not enough time in the world_, I thought to myself.

"Hey, wanna hear the last thing I ever heard in the 'real' world?" he said suddenly, smirking.

I raised my eyebrows, wondering where this was going. "What?"

"Percy making a joke! He was _joking_, George! Can you believe that? I was just saying how I couldn't believe it and how I couldn't wait to tell you, but then…well…I'm not sure what happened."

"An explosion. Outside the Room of Requirement," I told him.

He wrinkled his nose slightly. "An explosion? That's what killed me? Not a super powerful Death Eater or some super-cool secret mission, but an explosion?" He smirked. "That really _blows_."

I grinned a bit. "That was a really _blasted_ pun."

Fred laughed. "Yeah, I guess it was. But I reckon I'm still better looking than you."

My grin faded as my mind travelled back to the castle, where his body, the one identical to mine, was laying among the rest of those who had perished. The body with a lifeless face, eyes staring into nothingness.

He noticed my change in mood. "But at least you don't have me as competition anymore. You can go pick up as many Veelas as you like."

The memory of Bill and Fleur's wedding came back to me as he mentioned that.

"Fred, you're never going to get married. We won't be able to have a double wedding and switch places right before the ceremony. You're never going to have kids to pass on our jokes and pranks to. You're never going to see the shop become what you always dreamed it would be. We're not going to be able to grow old and be the life of the party like Uncle Bilius. Fred, you're…you're really dead."

I expected another large grin, a smirk, or a comment about how long it'd taken me to realize that. Instead, he looked just as sad as I was. "Yeah, I am. And maybe we won't get to do all those things, but hey, that doesn't mean you have to live any less of a life. You can be happy. You can live a full life, even without me."

He turned away slightly. "You were always stronger than me emotionally, better at handling things like this. There's a reason you're the one who survived, because you're the only one out of the two of us who can handle this. I know you can. Please. Please, George."

I wasn't sure if he was crying- could you cry after you were dead? -but he sure seemed like he was.

"Fred…" I started. What could I say in response to that? Sure, I may have been a bit stronger emotionally, but this was the most devastating thing I could ever imagine happening. Losing my twin. I wasn't going to be able to handle this, he had to know that.

But I guess I had to try. For him.

"Fred, I'm not gonna make promises here. Because I don't think I'm ever really going to be happy again. But I'll try. I'll try to live out the rest of this life. For both of us."

He smiled feebly. "Thanks, mate."

I smiled back. "I love you, Fred. And I'll miss you."

"I love you too, George."

I took a deep breath, taking in the moment. The last moment that I'd be with my twin.

And I let the stone drop from my hand.

And he vanished.


End file.
